Link of the Week


Even if you have no need for a site that generates random numbers, you might find this brief tutorial on randomness and random numbers interesting. Randomness can be as shallow as flipping a coin to see who gets the last piece of pie or as deep as determining whether or not people are responsible for their actions.
I suppose it's about time - here's a few of my favorite YouTube videos.

Cute but sad little animation short.
Stop-motion short film on the history of American wars from WWII up to present day...using only food.
Adam Savage from MythBusters shows helium isn't the only gas that makes people sound funny.
My personal favorite stop-motion short.
Incredibly lucky kid on The Price is Right.
This ain't your parent's a cappella.
Yea, it's a chick song but I do find the music video mesmerizing.
Your assignment: Construct a clock that will last 10,000 years. That's it. So easy to say, so hard to do.
High resolution images of famous, historical, and interesting locations. You'll need Apple's QuickTime to view.
Using only the basics laws of geometry and no trigonometry (law of sines, cosines, etc), find the angle of x. The site gives you a couple of vague hints. Here is mine: You'll need to use some basic algebra.
Play away
A fun little game where you play 16 games at once...or rather you jump from one game to the next at random as the speed gradually increases. Guaranteed to increase your blood pressure!
An oldie but goodie...and from my home state of Kansas! What started out as a joke, quickly became a thriving business with practically zero overhead.
Upon reaching the age of 18, Jewish girls are required to serve in the military for two years. Forced to conform at a time when many are no doubt trying to forge their individual identity, these photographs document that confusing dichotomy.
Go sledding in 2-D! Draw your own hills and then hit the play button to watch a little guy on a sled take the plunge.
I guess toiletpaper.com was already taken. In any case, this site should be popular with cats.
If you're like me and having trouble remembering which candidate stands what way on what issue, take this quick quiz and find the candidate whose policies most closely match your own. Of course, voting for someone involves more than just checking off the opinions you have in common, but it's a good starting point for further research.
In case your Netflix queue is getting sparse (yes, that was a shameless plug for Netflix). Branch out a little beyond the standard Hollywood fare. I haven't seen many of these but I would recommend Cube, Run Lola Run, Lost in Translation, Memento, and Night of the Living Dead.
A listing of important world events sorted by year (and decade).
Presented in glorious Bun-O-Vision, here is March of the Penguins as re-enacted by bunnies in under 30 seconds. If you haven't seen the original movie, you might want to go watch that first.
Thought this classic electric toy had gone the way of the dodo? Show your kids what life was like before video games.
There are many social and cultural differences between black and white people. Come with me as we embark on an epic journey to discover those subtle differences.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...a chunky, middle-aged white guy with several chins and way too much royalty money from the original Star Wars trilogy decided to make three more prequels. Only these movies would jettison the cumbersome conventions of so-called "good" movies with their "interesting plot" and "believable dialog" and "continuity", and would instead concentrate on the oft-underappreciated aspects of movie-making. Things such as "creating everything with computer graphics, because it's really cool" and "making space battles more like video games, because those have computer graphics" and "defiling past great movies by inserting computer-generated creatures in every other frame." Also, did I mention computer graphics?
Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes was an incredibly insightful comic that puts to shame most comics these days. Here's an extensive collections of Watterson's art you might not have seen, including some cartoons he did while still in college.
A comprehensive list of Simpsons quotes and moments accompanied by helpful explanations for some of the more esoteric ones.
Chinook is the world's first computer program to win the Checkers World Championship. Here you can give Chinook a run for its money - the creators have thoughtfully reduced its strength to give you a fighting chance. You should know however, that unlike chess, checkers is a simple enough game that there is an actual mathematical proof that Chinook follows to either win or draw every time. Kinda takes the fun out of things don't it?
Here's something that will brighten your day. An elementary school class "adopted" a Captain and his company stationed in Iraq. Among the many things they sent was a teddy bear, nicknamed Battle Hard Bear by the troops. This webpage shows all the different places and people Private Battle Hard Bear has been with. Just goes to show you there's a teddy bear in even the most battle-hardened soldier's heart.
"Where people come together to borrow and lend money." Interesting idea. I'd like to see their default rates before doing any lending.
Try to eat a pie in 15 bites. The site says it's possible but I have my doubts after trying to do it a few dozen times and having no luck.
The official Mystery Science Theater 3000 website. MST3K was a television program lampooning bad movies that aired... You know what? Just go here for the basics.
An incredible simple - and addicting - game. It's sort of like the old Cannon Fodder game only with gravity pods instead of wind shear.
A great, topical article (written May of 2007) arguing that the Middle East region is far less important than the media and historians make it out to be.
Here's a link to someone else's list of links. Sort of a "metalink" if you will.
I love that word - mechatronics - it has such a high-tech, sophisticated sound to it. I'm not sure what all this company makes, but I'll bet it has something to do with mechanics and electronics.
Google has been very busy scanning most every book they can get their hands on. Depending on the wishes of the author or publisher, you can read a few pages or the whole thing online.
Did you know Austria has the most deaths per capita of people falling off cliffs? Almost six out of every million persons. You can also find out which countries have the highest incidents of heartburn, fall from trees, and flatulence (really!).
A handy table listing the average credit card balance and interest rate for individuals broken out by state. Amazing how much the interest rate can vary state-to-state.
Lejo is quite the DJ - he can scratch records with the best of them. He's also a finger puppet.
Anousheh Ansari broke many records when she blasted into space to visit the International Space Station last September - first woman private space explorer and only the fourth private explorer overall. Perhaps most groundbreaking, she was the first astronaut of Iranian descent. I love America - a place where an immigrant from an unfriendly country can come, settle, start her own company, and make enough money to take a trip into space.
A handy how-to guide on how to be my middle school track coach...I mean how to whistle really loud.
Don't let the name fool you. This relatively small website has taught me more about investing, financing, and economics than any college class ever did. Hands-down the best website on investing.
If the photos of these cute little prickly pears compel you to get one, please do not name it "Sonic." It's been done already and wasn't that clever the first time.
Paperbacks have a special place in my heart - I have many fond memories of finding many of these books while killing time during elementary and middle school study hall. I often felt like I'd found a hidden gem that nobody realized was worth so much. Some of my favorites are Sideways Stories from Wayside School, The Indian in the Cupboard, Bunnicula, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Incredible Journey. These classics never get old. Share them with future generations.
The small, independent bookshop has sadly become an endangered species in today's world. Fortunately, this website helps connect booksellers to provide new, used, rare and out-of-print books.
"HAVIDOL is the first and only treatment for dysphoric social attention consumption deficit anxiety disorder (DSACDAD)." Is there anything drugs can't do?
Here's a fun little site built around a simple premise: "What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?" A fun, and educational, way to visualize large numbers.
Three lectures on quantum theory delivered by the late, great Hans Bethe. Bethe received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of atomic nuclei. These lectures were given when Bethe was 92 years of age - truly an inspiring life and career. Bethe passed away in 2005.
Life got you down? Come on in and crash at the caveman's crib. The caveman knows your pain. He gets discriminated against every day - especially by the car insurance industry. So hang out at his place, groove on some mellow tunes...there's even some Tolstoy on the bookshelf if you're in the mood.
If you've read about my fund you should already know about Marketocracy, but just in case, here it is. Once you enroll (free), you are given $1 million "virtual" dollars to invest in the stock market in whatever manner you see fit (with a few stipulations). Have fun!
I'm not sure if being able to blend a rake handle or 53 toy cars is such a great selling point for a blender, but those things are just hor'deurves for The Total Blender!
I had to spend many excruciating moments trying to beat this impossibly hard Flash game, and therefore, so should you. As an added bonus, you'll have the theme music permanently burned into your synaptic pathways for the rest of your life. Here, let me reproduce this amazing composition for you right now:
Robot Voice set to Techno Music: "Aggressive Alpine Skiing...Aggressive Alpine Skiing...Aggressive Alpine Skiing...Aggressive Alpine Skiing...Aggressive, Aggressive, Aggressive...Aggressive Alpine Skiing...Aggressive, Aggressive, Aggressive...Aggressive Alpine Skiing"
Repeat ad infinitum (or until you're done torturing your victim).
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
A website dedicated to a single purpose - reviewing different root beer brews. He's up to 326 so far.
Take this quiz and see how panic-prone you would be in Eisenhower's America (that would be the 1950s for you historically-challenged individuals).
This game is sort of hard to describe in words, but here I go: You use the arrow keys to move a guy around in a maze. Oh, did I mention the maze walls are covered with deadly spikes, your view is always moving around and getting alternately compressed and stretched, and there are razor blades flying around everywhere? Don't get me started on the glowing zombies that spin you into a puddle of blood if they catch you.
Ah yes, Michael J Nelson. A brilliant writer and actor on Mystery Science Theater 3000 for over a decade. Sadly, that TV show is no more, but Michael J Nelson lives on...and makes my life a bit more enjoyable.
What's in a name? Quite a bit, according to this site. Before saddling your new-born with a name that comes from the Latin phrase meaning "I have a stupid name," research its origins on this site.
"Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph."
You might have done Google Earth, but when is the last time you looked at our nearest neighbor? Find some good real estate while you still can! To find out what the moon is really made of, zoom in as close as you can.
Eight tips for subtly tipping the odds in your favor when playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Dr Strangelove Syndrome, Ondine's Curse, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome - the names of some of these rare medical afflictions are almost more fun to read than the description of what they are.
Did you know NASA has a technology transfer program? Well they do, and I think it's really cool. You come up with a great idea and NASA lends you some of their awesome engineers (hey - they're rocket scientists!) to help you implement your idea.
Looking at my list of links, most of them appear to fall under the "geeky" or "intellectual" categories. In an attempt to break from tradition, here's a fun and purely entertaining link cataloguing one man's opinion on the 50 greatest sports moments of all time.
In case you're at a party and the conversation turns to who has recently won the Fields Medal... I know that always happens to me.
The name says it all. A big 'ol honking chart of religions, along with a brief overview of each one and further links for more info.
Here's a fun mini-golf...make that macro-golf game played with planets, stars, and black holes.
Who knew such complicated and interesting shapes could be created from paper? MIT nerds, that's who.
Here's an update version of the fun game where you try to kill your opponent. If you're not into that you can also try slaughtering innocent birds flying above you.
The only thing funnier than what some of these animals look like, is the names people come up with to give them.
I believe all the verses are linked to Bible Gateway - another good site.
My favorite author, Michael Crichton, gave this incredibly insightful lecture three years ago at Caltech. It encapsulates exactly how I feel about the distortion of pure science that plagues today's world. His criticisms of human-caused global warming and SETI apply equally as well to "creationism".
This link paid for by Sears.com. Not really, just don't get carried away and buy a bunch of stuff you don't need.
No, not photographs of squirrels, but photos of squirrels taking photographs. It's an important distinction.
Remember that Albino Squirrel Preservation Society link I featured several months ago? Well, in case that didn't satisfy your desire for campus squirrels, here is a site that lists a bunch more...along with a brief description and rating (apparently not all campus squirrels are created equal).
This is probably the most interesting optical illusion I've seen. Be sure and check out the other interesting illusions found on this site.
There are a lot to read about here - most older than I am. Some are good, some are bad, some just don't make a whole lot of sense.
I'll file this away for future use.
Based on the look of some of these skylines, the far east appears to be the place to be if you have to live in a city. My personal favorite is Chicago because of its so many unique and great skyscrapers.
Sam truly was the world's ugliest dog. Sadly, or maybe mercifully, Sam has went to that big fire-hydrant in the sky, where he can scare the pants off angels now.
"On June 17th, every year, the family goes through a private ritual: we photograph ourselves to stop a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by."
It took me half my life to find it. Now what am I supposed to do?
Let's take a trip through time. Back to the care-free, innocent 1990's. Back to a time when people were apparently really hard up for entertainment - as evidenced by this horrifically kitschy webpage that defined an entire decade.
Today, boys and girls, we learn that the entire Bible can be told using Lego® bricks. We also learn that if the whole Bible were made into a movie, it would most definitely be rated NC-17.
Interested in getting a weiner dog? Consider rescuing one that is neglected or unwanted.
If your tastes run towards Edgar Allen Poe and Tim Burton then you'll definitely enjoy the photographs on this site. Browse around to see all sorts of pictures of eerily beautiful, decaying, urban ruins.
The FAQ section of the LiftPort Group - an organization dedicated to building a mass transportation system into space; what we science geeks more commonly refer to as a Space Elevator. It's a really cool machine that I hope to see constructed in my lifetime.
An oldie but goody. The opening statement of Mr. Coyote's attorney in the case of Wile E. Coyote vs Acme Company.
Math geek humor takes a bit getting used to. Here's a small sample to get you started. Or maybe you genuinely needed a container with a closed, nonorientable surface of Euler characteristic 0. In that case be sure and pick up a Möbius scarf as well.
Interesting, very interesting. This guy has created a virtual planetarium to look around in at your leisure. It's all very bare-bones but it looks like more will be added later.
I love the story of Rikki-tikki-tavi - the mongoose with great courage and a big heart. This is one of those stories I remember being read to me before I could read. The last words of this story are words to live by: "Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too proud"
I can see the world is getting you down. You need a puppybreak.
You might notice the Google logo changing from time to time to commemorate special holidays and events. Here is a handy compilation of all these tweaked logos in one online museum.
Look out - this approaches college-level chemistry. A good compilation and explanation of why good old H2O holds a special place in my heart (and lungs and brain and muscles and...)
I'm not quite sure what to make of Wikipedia. It's an online encyclopedia with entries that any and everyone is free to add-to, change, and delete at any time. While that eliminates it - in my mind - as a authoritative source, there are certain advantages Wikipedia enjoys over typical encyclopedias. Because anyone can add entries, recent items (usually in pop culture) are just as well documented as the old standards. This also makes it much wider in scope than most encyclopedias. To see a good example of this, do a search of Barney. There are entries on the kid-friendly dinosaur, the Half-Life character (cool!), characters from the Andy Griffith Show, Simpsons, and Flintstones, plus some towns named Barney.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Test ye mad phat physics skilz on ye olde tyme siege engine. Anon! The gentylmen and wymmen, prynces lordes and knyghtes await in breathless, joyefull anticipation at ye droppage of da bomb. I gotta stop mixing the Canterbury Tales with teen slang.
Learn the heart-breaking story of Wale's most famous dog, the Irish Wolfhound Gelert.
Here are some funky illusions illustrating how easily our concept of color is changed depending on the color of the surroundings.
Continuing with the educational motif displayed in the last few weeks worth of links, here is another chance to learn geography. Silly me, I didn't even know what part of the world Oceania referred to. Now I know: The islands of the Central and South Pacific.
Learn the provinces and territories of our beautiful but bland northern neighbor.
Try learning country names and locations in that birthplace of civilization...the Middle East (now if we could just get civilization to return there).
Slightly more than a week later, but here's another continent as promised (see the last link of the week).
The Internet can be educational as well as entertaining. Find out how good your geography is by dragging and dropping each European country onto a blank map of Europe. Next week, we'll try another continent.
From the "Man, why didn't I think of that?!" department comes this addicting puzzle game. The premise is extremely simple, as most good puzzlers are: Rearrange some dots so that none of the lines stretched between them cross.
It just don't get any cuter than this: A website devoted to an albino squirrel living on the University of North Texas campus. Legend has it that if you spot the squirrel (unofficially known as "baby") before an exam, you'll do better on it. The quotes from members of the Albino Squirrel Preservation Society (ASPS) are quite fun to read - Sample: I see the albino squirrel in my dreams. Each day I feel like I am closer to seeing one in real life. I keep thinking... what will happen on that fateful day when I meet the albino squirrel. Will I be able to speak or squeak? Will he live up to my expectations? Will I live up to his expectations?
The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) tracks all manner of quakes - both large and small. This webpage showes the most recent quakes in the U.S. There are far more than I expected and in some unusual spots - notice the big ones between Montana and Idaho, and a few small ones around Missouri / Tennessee.
On the Dog Island, Man's Best Friend enjoys perfect weather and a "natual, healthy and happy life." This website might be trying to say something else as well...but I'll let you figure that out.
And now for something completely new and different...the 24 Karat Gold Plated DeLorean from Texas. The back-story for this car curiosity (and it's eccentric inventor) can all be found on this web page.
Shure sells high-end earphones (headphones that fit in the ear canal) by the seashore. Okay I made that last part up. But if crisp, clear sound interests you and cost is no object - i.e., you're an audiophile - look no further than this website.
See what happens when I have to post a new link each week, every week, year after year?
Arranged in ascending order of feasibility, here - finally - are the top 10 ways to bring about Earth's total destruction. You have to use proven scientific principles so building a Death Star is not an option.
You'll need Macromedia's Flash player to play these fun, addictive games (Flash will automatically load if you don't have it when you go to the site). That first game especially, POOM!, is more addictive than a Starbucks coffee spiked with crack cocaine...errr, so I hear.
It's all Spirit and Opportunity all the time on this site created and maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Current status update, press releases, mission statements, pictures, video...pretty much the closest you could ever get to the missions short of getting hired by JPL - now that would be cool!
The article is a bit old so most of these myths should be fairly well-known by now. Still, it's informative and discusses such classics as "Will terrible things happen if you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows?" and "Does opting out of spam just get you even more spam?"
Since there are a hundred movies in this list, maybe it should have just been called 100 War Films. I mean, what war movies have they not included? The Star Wars episodes?
Petals Around the Rose is a fun little game played with five dice. In fact, I'm not sure it qualifies as a game - more of a puzzler really. Hint: It's all about the name of the game.
Who'da thought a coke can and candy bar could be used to start a fire? Apparently this guy did. Perhaps a coke and candy bar should be standard items for all wilderness survival kits.
What started as a small, grass-roots campaign to end BTQ abuse is now sweeping the nation. Please petition your state representatives to end this horrific attack on the integrity of the English language. I think Miss Ryder summed it up best: "If you are not clear on what is meant by the phrase ‘beg the question’, don’t use it. All you do is pollute the language and show yourself up as less bright than you think you are."
The infectious and educational spirit of Schoolhouse Rock lives on in this fun little animation brought to you by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Being an animation, this page takes a while to load if you have lowly dial-up Internet access (like me). DSL or cable work much better.
After a hard day at the office, I can feel those missing IQ points that were sucked right out of me by the daily grind. That's why, when I come home, I go to the frig and reach for an ice-cold...Google Gulp?
This week's link is an attempt to synchronize the Link of the Week with the Quote of the Week. The quote being said by the infamous HAL 9000 computer. If you haven't seen the classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, I would strongly recommend doing so before reading this long essay about said movie. Because it won't make sense if you don't.
"Short biographies and background notes on selected world heroes and killers of the 20th century."
You've Googled...now it's time to Froogle. Essentially, you type what you're looking to buy and Froogle returns results of online stores that have the item and the price they're selling it for. It still needs work - the results are kind of cluttered and confusing. But it might be worth a shot; if only to do some price-comparison.
This chronologically-arranged list includes a good cross-section of horrific stories over the last 400 years.
An online dictionary for made-up words. Idk if this is worth a glaum, but it aint no cobwebsite. Anyways, I'm caffuffed and my care factor is zero, so salata.
This site has tons of reviews of movies, music, and video games. Knock yourself out.
This is the essential Urban Legend reference and resource site. I know for a fact this site is updated at least monthly. Being all-inclusive, some of the stories covered are of a more graphic nature - not suitable for small children, the squeamish, and Christian universities with sensitive web filters. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The Internet has been around longer than you might think, and the knowledge and theory underlying the Internet has been around a real long time.
Just in time for Christmas - design your own snowflake.
A simple, in theory anyways, 6-step process to ignite dry kindling using only a piece of ice and your hands. Browse around the whole site (home page link at the bottom of the page) to find other interesting how-to guides on primitive practices.
Google Scholar corrals the awesome power of regular Google so that one can search specifically for scholarly literature - books, peer-reviewed papers, technical journals, and so forth and so on. I can already hear the rejoicing of college students everywhere, struggling to finish that 10-page English Comp. II research paper due tomorrow.
giz·mol·o·gy also gis·mol·o·gy n., pl.giz·mol·o·gies. The scientific study of, or the body of knowledge pertaining to, gizmos.

If Bob Vila where to take steroids, this guy would be the result.
When the name of a hot sauce includes the word death (as in Blair's Deathsauce), you know your wandering into crazy, gratuitus excesses territory. If you're the type of person who eats a bowl of chilli and thinks, "Hmmm...needed to be a bit more painful" - this site is for you.
Try flicking a crumpled-up piece of paper into a waste basket in this Flash game. My personal best is 7 hits in a row. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to beat that score. Your reward? A personal sense of accomplishment - and the knowledge that you can slack with the best of them!
What in the world were our founding fathers thinking when they created the electoral college? Like most things in life, the electoral college is not an easy concept to grasp, but it's not rocket surgery either. I'd encourage anyone of high-school age or older to read this long but informative article to understand the idea behind this institution that gets people riled up every four years.
A varied collection of optical illusions. The first one - the checkerboard with a cylinder sitting on it - never ceases to amaze me. To prove the squares are the same color; with the pictures open hit the PrtScn button (usually right above the Insert and Delete keys). Then open up a program such as Microsoft Paint and go to Edit / Paste to view the picture. From there, you can drag a box around either checkerboard square and drag it to the other one to see if they're the same color. Prepare to be amazed.
Remember back when the Internet was just beginning and Nintendo reigned as supreme video-game maker with their addictive Mario franchise? The History of Mario harkens back to that simpler time - a time when my biggest life challenge was trying to find all the wharp whistles in Super Mario Brothers 3.
More fascinating Escher art (see last weeks link), this time rendered with LEGO blocks.
M.C. Escher is to art as Lewis Carroll is to literature. They both take the ordinary, everyday mundane and twist it, stretch it, iterate it... skew it until it is uniquely theirs. Escher for Real takes some of those unique Escher creations and attempts to cast them into our 3-dimensional world.
This is a joke, right? Somebody with a very drool, wickedly sarcastic sense of humor made this whole website as a big joke, right?...Right!? I refuse to contemplate the possibility that this is legit. Oh wait, I just did. My faith in humanity just shriveled up and died.
The "Dear Abby" column for the practical minded. A guy by the name of Cecil Adams writes most of The Straight Dope columns. No question is off limits (as you'll find when browsing the archives); as long as it can be definitely answered one way or another.
Those Brits and their humour! If you've never been privy to British witticisms, here's your chance. Feast on some Cold Fusion Sandwiches. Find out the importance of immunising yourself against tigers. Developing a taste for British humour is like learning to ice skate... it can be done, if you're not afraid to make a fool of yourself every now and then.
Not for the career-seeker! This is a search site for part-time and hourly jobs. Parents: point your teenager to this site if you're tired of their shenanigans around the house. Sadly, I'm guessing this only works if you live in a large city - I doubt farmer Brown has his morning chores posted.
Almost a decade's worth of high-resolution astronomy pictures - all one click away. Don't be an Aristotle; get with the times and embrace the Copernican revolution.
There are plenty of weather-reporting websites around. I prefer this one to most. AccuWeather's main page immediately provides you with the latest breaking bad weather situation and the entire site layout is extremely user-friendly. Also, although it's a little late now, you can keep a close watch on hurricane Charlie.
Continuing my never-ending quest to educate others on the fundamentals of investing, I present to you this site. Browse the categories, search the site, or search the entire web for answers to anything relating to money. Remember: Money isn't everything...but it is something.
Magnets so strong they shatter on impact? Cool! Luckily, this site offers other things to do besides watching them explode. Build a super-compass, demonstrate inductive braking... even constructing an electromagnetic friction drive is within reach with these curiously strong magnets.
"Motorsports Equipment & Technology" is what TRUECHOICE sells. Yes, I realize there are a million places like this on the web - I only list it here because TRUECHOICE had some really handy parts I used for my senior design project in college (an SAE Formula car). Also, their prices seem to be reasonable.
Long live Oolong - the cute bunny that took cuteness to the next level by balancing things on its cute furry head. You heard me.
Gangsters, serial killers, terrorists, Kenneth Lay - you can read about them all on this site. Browse through some of these articles to find out just how depraved humans can become.
If I only had the talent in this guy's pinky finger... This retired dentist from Honolulu, Hawaii creates ultra-detailed aluminum Corsair models (airplanes). The page takes a while to load since the person that created it felt the need to have every single picture on one page, but it's worth the wait.
These funky, multicolored optical illusions will make your head swim and your eyes cross. Good wholesome fun for the entire family!
Yet another Google-related site. Google is da bomb; the sooner you people realize that, the better. Perhaps I should start a Google religion. After all, Google does have the answer to life, the universe, and everything! Now go forth and spread the good news.
Bow Man...he came from the East to do battle with Tie Man. Just kidding. Click on the link and you'll be whisked away to an addicting Flash game in which you have to shoot another person with arrows. I guess this is how medival archers duelled.
What you call meaningless dreck - fit only to be used as mind torture on the evil-doers of society, Jabootu calls "A great cheesy movie!"
Morningstar is another good place to research investment strategies - sans the poignant wit and tongue-in-cheek sarcasm of The Motley Fool. But not everyone can make money that exciting, can they?
The Uncanny Valley should be as familiar to techno-junkies as Asimov's 4 Laws of Robotics - 7 laws if you want to get technical, which of course a techno-junky always will. But back to the Uncanny Valley; this webpage explains it. Hint: It has to do with artificial intelligence.
"I DID IT MMMYYYYYYY WAAAAAAYYYYY!" Another excellent homepage site. You can custimize to your hearts content and best of all - there are no advertisements or popups of any kind. Oh, and it is of course all free.
If you've ever taken a college-level psychology course, you've no doubt heard of "Freeman's ice pick lobotomy". Yes, it's as disgusting as it sounds and yes, you probably shouldn't click on the link if you're in the middle of eating something. There are no sick pictures; just a detailed description of what the state of psychology was 60+ years ago. We've come a long way baby.
J.R.R. Tolkien's crafted an entire world of both the fantastic and imaginative. The Encyclopedia of Arda tries to explain and catalog this world.
If you read the "disclaimer" at the front page of this site, you'll find it's still under construction. Nevertheless, browse around to find descriptions and short videos of all manner of pen tricks - from basic to abstruse.
See what the odds are of the area you live in (or are going for Christmas) having snow on Christmas day.
A matchstick plane powered by glued-on flies. It sounds and looks (helpful illustrations included) like a cool idea. Let me know how it turns out.
An extensive and well-organized website about physics. Related concepts and fields are linked together, which makes it easy to browse around to the exact concept you're looking for.
Now this is what I call good public relations! Just another company website except for the tons of informative links over on the left hand side of the page that describe and explain common concepts and inventions in the science and engineering disciplines. And if you can't find a topic that interests you - well, you're no scientist.
Maintained by former students, this site is quite an eye-opener. It has a brief survey you can fill out (for former or current college students) as well as a general comment section, which is probably the most interesting. The comments are uncensored and brutally honest - often written by disgusted students warning you not to make the same mistake they did by attending a particular school.
Two CPU's are better than one. For those who salivate at the thought of more than one processor purring under the hood...er, case, of their computer - this site's for you.
Slate is not just the best online magazine ever - it puts most printed circulars to shame with its cutting editorials and explainer section which answers many questions about items currently in the news. Read a Slate article once or twice a month - you'll be a better informed citizen for it.
I think this was one of those ideas that was better in theory than actuality. Or perhaps it was just a way for someone to test out their JavaScript ability. Whatever the case, you can go to this site, enter the time you take off for lunch during work, and then enter how many minutes you'd like to extend your lunch break. Hit "Launch lunchclock" and a giant clock pops up which is just slow enough to let you have those extra minutes but (theoretically) not so far off that your boss notices.
No, I can't afford to buy any of this furniture, but that Mirra chair does look sweet doesn't it?
This handy site allows you to search any major airline flight by Flight Number, and it will give you the status of that particular flight. It even displays a handy map showing the location of the plane if it's still in the air.
I've heard this is an excellent search engine for specific situations. Alas, I've never bothered to use it, so I'm not sure how excellent it really is or what situations it should be used for. Anyways, if just one person finds WiseNut an invaluable searching tool, my life has meaning.
Many, many different personalized, money-related, online calculators conveniently arranged into ten different categories:
  1. Credit and Budget
  2. Home
  3. Savings
  4. College
  5. Retirement
  6. Roth IRA
  7. Bonds
  8. Auto
  9. Equity Credit Line
  10. Salary
In case you couldn't tell by my page of quotes, I like quotes. This site has tons of quotes. So I guess you know what that means.
Quite a few of my fellow college friends buy all their class textbooks from this eBay-affiliated site. They also have music, movies, games and computer stuff; all at bedrock-bottom prices (how does a decent Dell laptop for $450 sound?).
Since Gary Larson and Bill Watterson are both retired, Scott Adams' comic strip alone has the wicked sarcasm and brilliant wit I so desperately crave for my humdrum life.
I'm not really sure what this is...but it's fun to mess around with. Imagine if one of those ubiquitous human skeletons standing in the corner of human anatomy classes the world over was made into a marionette puppet - only with bungee cords instead of strings attached to the joints. On second thought, just visit the site to see what it's all about.
A list of fun, straightforward online games. Best of all, every games is powered by good old-fashioned java so you don't have to download fancy-smanshy plugins or wait 20 minutes for the thing to load.
I like this online map generator better than Yahoo's. The maps are easier to read, there are more options and the page layouts are more user friendly.
This was in one of Dave Barry's weekly columns a while back. I admit I exploit technology to make my life easier as much as the next guy...but The Jet Powered Beer Cooler is something I can only aspire to.
Sometimes technology is bad - especially if it's made by Microsoft.
That's "Home of the Hardcore Computer Gamer" by the way. You won't find console game info here. They have a good mix of hardware and software reviews and previews - although they still don't beat Tom's Hardware Guide for my hardware needs.
"Crank Dot Net is devoted to presenting Web sites by and about cranks, crankism, crankishness, and crankosity. All cranks, all the time."
Kill the pop-ups...kill the pop-ups...kill the pop-ups - kill them ALLLLLLL!!!
Seein' as how the Indianapolis 500 just finished, here's a quick run-down on how the major racing car types stack up against each other.
Not every link of the week can be funny or entertaining. Here's an exhaustive listing of computer-related inventions and discoveries beginning in the 1400's right on up to the present. I found it entertaining (but not funny).
Take this short (25 question) quiz and find out how liberal/conservative you are. The results may surprise you. So how did I fair? I scored a 20 - exactly in the middle. No joke. And here I thought I was a pure-blood conservative. This liberal college education must have tainted me ; )
This is a site devoted to news and information about search engines. The information listed under "Departments" on the left-hand menu may be particularly helpful to some.
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If you use your computer for email, web-surfing and word processing, go to Dell (hmm...that doesn't sound so good when said aloud). But if you're rich, play computer games and like to show off your computer to friends, then head on over to Voodoo PC and get yourself a real computer. Sadly, I am all of the above except rich, and so I just look and dream *cue mournful violin solo*.
In order to truly appreciate the humor of this page, it helps to know something about postmodernism. Postmodernism is a philosophy, an outlook on life that rejects traditional philosophy, that is, philosophy since Descartes. Truth, the postmodernist will tell you, is an illusion and all observations are opinion - there are no overriding facts (eternal forms as Plato would say). So if you read anything written by a postmodernist (Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Gadamer) the author isn't so much trying to argue any specific idea (what idea?!) as he or she is joyfully embracing radical skeptical subjectivism and relativism. It's all very convoluted and meandering and a big load of hooi-putooi if you ask me.
Search for any string of numbers in the digits of pi. Or at least the first 100 million digits since pi is a non-repeating number. I haven't figured out why this would be useful but I'm sure I will some day.
The name pretty much explains it.
Ancient legend tells of giant button which doesn't do anything when pressed. I'm here to tell you that it's no legend. The really big button that doesn't do anything exists as a sort of neoteric Rorschach test - laying bare the human psyche with each mouse click. Or maybe it's just a dumb button that doesn't do anything.
Why is Google such a good search engine? It all comes down to their patented PigeonRank™ technology. Wonder what they do with all the droppings.
Before you swallow what someone has to say about something they "read on the Internet," go to this site and check it out.
Music and probability have more in common than you might think. Here you can compose your very own minuet - by the random throw of dice. The site even generates the score for your "original" piece.
You like free stuff right? This site has tons of free programs sorted for your convenience. Did I mention they're free?
This site discusses common stupid movie physics and has a large listing of individually rated movies. I usually don't mind implausible or unrealistic physics in movies...but I do have my limits. For instance, I would rather pierce my tongue and gargle with lemon juice than watch Armageddon again. But that's just me.
Low self-esteem? Let the Internet help.
This one has been around for quite a few years. Don't take the results too seriously - remember this is the internet. By the way, I'm a right-leaning authoritarian which, according to the site, is a fascist!
This handy page from NASA pictorially shows the current position of the shuttle and space station above earth. The space station can be seen with the naked eye when it passes overhead.
Fetchfido is a powerful website that allows you waste more time than you ever thought possible. A vast collection of Shockwave, Flash, and Java Script games are all alphabetized for your convenience. My favorite is still Snowcraft, but Frogger, 3D Pong, and Heli Rescue are also quite enjoyable (i.e. - able to entertain for hours on end).
You know those disgustingly upbeat motivational posters that feature a photo of some majestic nature scene with a totally worthless platitude underneath? You say those are hung up all over the walls at work? Well, perhaps you should browse over to Dispair.com, buy a few "replacements" and do the ol' switch-a-roo. See how long it takes your boss to notice.
Just in time for the holiday rush of traffic, this site is one man's experimental theory on big-city traffic patterns (especially traffic jams). There's a lot to read here, but his experiments and hypotheses are quite fascinating and seem to make a certain amount of sense.
There's something not-quite-right with this picture. Something is terribly wrong... (Hint: listen carefully)
This is the only search engine you'll ever need. If you can't find it with Google, it's not worth finding. (And for all you Yahoo! fans - you're just using a neutered version of Google's search technology.)
This is the site that gives meaning to all our sordid, wretched lives. Through the amazing power of the Internet, Eric is able to convey hundreds of different emotions to a world-wide audience. Why? Stop thinking so much, go to the site, and have a good laugh.
This site is not for the dial-up modem user. This is a pure Flash site so it will run slower than John Goodman at an all-you-can-eat buffet on anything less than a cable Internet connection. For those of you who can run it (both of you), Homestarrunner! is a funny little site showcasing the wild antics of Strong Bad and friends. Okay, so it's just an online cartoon - but it is funny.
Programmers love creating easter eggs. If the previous sentence sounded weird or disgusting to you, head on over to eeggs.com and get educated on what easter eggs really are. For the rest of you - eeggs.com is a huge listing of all sorts of easter eggs.
The reference desk makes a good home page since it has tons of links, multiple search engines, a people search, stock quotes, translation dictionaries, and so forth - all on one page! Its a bit of information overload for me but it does load much faster than MSN.com for all you dial-up modem users out there.
I've mentioned this link elsewhere on my site, but let me just clearly state the obvious right here: You have a computer hardware question? Tom's Hardware Guide has the answer. This site is the computer Consumer Report. And when I say computer; that includes printers, digital cameras, joysticks, etc.
It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown...
Rid yourself of unwanted viruses by following the four steps on this page. Simple. Effective. Hilarious.
This is such a nicely organized site...which is unfortunately a rarity for Christian web sites. Bible Gateway is essentially the world's largest Bible conveniently located online. 13 different translations? 28 different languages? Audio readings? - check, check, and check. A powerful search engine that allows you to locate practically any scripture passage you want (even if all you remember is "it's in there somewhere") - you'll find it all here.
So you wanna learn stuff? I wouldn't advise basing major life-changing decisions on this site but the hundreds of articles they have are entertaining. So you wanna be a sitcom writer? Be a human guinea pig? It's all on this site...and more!
This is one looooong story about...well, I'll let the guy speak for himself:
"In May of 1995, I suddenly found myself smack in the middle of a very unusual ‘life experiment.’ I deposited a junk mail check into my ATM and to my absolute dismay, it cashed. Thus began the wildest adventure I've ever been on in my life."
Just what the Internet needs...another satire/humor site. You gotta admire the guy for making all this stuff up, though. Check out his movie reviews and celebrity interviews.